


Ohayo Sekai!

by The_Alias (Artemis_Day)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Dr. Stone Fusion, F/M, Jane Foster Loves Science (Marvel), Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2020, Lokane Bingo, Loki Bingo, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27546646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Day/pseuds/The_Alias
Summary: On that day, every man, woman, and child on earth turned to stone. And one Norse god.Dr. Stone Fusion AU
Relationships: Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster/Loki
Comments: 9
Kudos: 48
Collections: Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2020, Loki Bingo 2020-2021





	Ohayo Sekai!

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU based on the anime/manga, Dr. Stone, which you must go watch if you haven't already.
> 
> Seriously, go now. I'll wait.
> 
> You done? Awesome! Enjoy the fic then.
> 
> Written for: 
> 
> Ladies of Marvel Bingo Square E3: AU- Crossover  
> Lokane Bingo Square N2: Ruins  
> Loki Bingo Square N3: Free Space

"So did you hear about these swallows?"

They were sitting in the corner of a cafe on Eighth Street. Jane on one end of the table with her laptop, Darcy on the other with her phone. Empty plates covered in breadcrumbs and bits of bacon and lettuce lay between them. The surrounding tables were occupied by families with screaming children, couples on romantic outings, businessmen going over proposals, students buried in textbooks, groups of friends laughing over bad jokes. A middle-aged woman was berating a waitress over the price of a smoothie. Outside, yellow cabs mingled with luxurious town cars, clogging up the streets and creating a cacophony of blaring horns that even the thickest glass couldn't withstand.

On the sidewalk, a police officer was writing a ticket for someone who had parked next to a fire hydrant. An artist had set up their stand with cityscapes and caricatures of celebrities for ten dollars each. The scent of salt and dough wafted from a pretzel kiosk on the corner by the walk light.

This was what living in the city was like. It was an average day in the month of April. Warm and sunny. Perfect for walking in the park or sitting under an elm tree with a book. Darcy was supposed to be working on her thesis. At least, that's what she'd said she was going to do when she dragged Jane out of the lab to get lunch. After thirty-five minutes, her laptop had yet to leave her bag. Her glasses reflected a Facebook news feed and a photo of a small, bird-shaped statue.

"No, I haven't," Jane said because rebuking Darcy for goofing off when the deadline for submission was only two months away was a losing battle and she knew it. Better to just play along. "What about them?"

"It's the weirdest thing." Darcy tapped the screen and then turned it to face Jane. "They're finding them all over the place now. A few were reported in Asia first. Now it's happening all over the place."

According to the article, or what little Jane could read through Darcy's fingers, life-sized swallow statues had been found in various parts of the world where swallows are indigenous. No one knew where they came from or who was leaving them, but it had been rumored by some that they were, in fact, real birds afflicted with some form of paralysis. There was more, but the sentence cut off.

"Interesting," Jane said blandly.

An email alert popped up and she clicked on it to find another message from Erik. As she typed out a reply, Darcy stared incredulously at her.

"That's it?" she said. "You don't think this is super freaky?"

"I said it was interesting, didn't I?"

"But you don't seem to care all that much!"

Her cry garnered the attention of a woman cutting up a hamburger patty for her fidgeting son. The woman glared at the back of Darcy's head, then went back to her task.

Jane sighed. "Fine, it's weird, okay? Probably just one of those internet psyop things. Nothing to get worked up over."

"Birds are turning to stone and you think it's not a problem."

"Those aren't real birds, Darcy." Jane finished the email and went back to analyzing data. "I've got a lot of work to do today, and so do you. There's no time to worry about a bunch of statues."

"I am working!" Darcy said, looking down at her zipped-up bag and blushing. "I mean I'm going to… that's not the point. This is an unexplained phenomenon. We had our own unexplained phenomenon last year. And you kissed it. You should be all over this."

"Maybe if it was up in the sky," Jane smirked.

It was easier to make jokes and deflect than get into yet another conversation about Thor and how much they hadn't heard from him in the year since he disappeared. That beam of rainbow light had haunted her dreams for months. Now it only crossed her mind every so often as she buried herself in another few mountains of data. It was always the bridge that made her heart race now. Never the man who had crossed it.

Most of the time anyway.

But as thinking about Thor was not on today's agenda, Jane rewrote a few equations, adjusted her 3-D model bridge, and listened to Darcy rant about bird statues.

"There's already a bunch of 'experts' looking into this. They say the statues are too lifelike to be fake. One was even found in a nest. A nest, Jane! What does that tell you?"

"Tells me someone has a lot of time on their hands," she said.

Scowling, Darcy ducked behind her phone, no doubt searching for more Buzzfeed articles to back up her claims. While she waited, Jane signaled to the waitress, who brought her a fresh cup of coffee.

"Thank you so much," she said.

The waitress, a sweet-faced blonde named Heather, smiled. "Of course. Let me know when you're ready for your checks."

"I'm telling you, Jane, I've got a feeling about this one," Darcy said as Heather walked away. "This is going to be big. Maybe even life-changing."

"You're thinking it'll be squirrel statues next?" Jane asked. "Or maybe rabbits?"

Another scowl. "You know, for a scientist, you sure are inflexible when it comes to new discoveries."

"I love new discoveries. I love making them and I love hearing about them." Jane tapped Darcy's phone. "This is not a new discovery. Two days from now, they'll be some other prankster causing a stir with people, and no one will even remember this."

"I don't know. It may seem impossible, but so did Norse gods being real," Darcy said.

"They're not gods, they're aliens," Jane corrected, as she had countless times before. "The existence of life on other planets was always a reasonable assumption. Birds turning to stone? There's no way that could ever… Darcy?"

Her intern's eyes had wandered to the window. As Jane followed them, the noise of the restaurant began to die down. One by one, everyone turned to look at the glowing green light emitting from outside. Traffic slowed as drivers stuck their heads out their windows. Pedestrians pointed and whispered to each other. Somewhere, a baby was crying. As their mother tried to soothe them, Jane found herself on her feet and walking.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Darcy shouted after her.

"I just want to see it," Jane said. "Wait here, I'll be right back."

"Jane!"

Nobody stopped her from leaving without paying the bill. Not that Jane wouldn't. As soon as she got a good look at whatever that light was, she'd go back inside and tip them double. That was what she told herself as she took a step back from the wave of energy spreading through the sky. A sound like an engine coming to life preceded a rain of green light plummeting to Earth. People screamed and ran all around her, but Jane was rooted to the spot. The scientist in her couldn't fathom what she was looking at, any more than it could fathom looking away.

"What is this... What is…"

Jane never finished that sentence. As she opened her mouth to speak again, the world went dark. No sound would issue from her throat. She couldn't close her jaw, move her arms or even turn her head. Every part of her body was numb. She felt nothing, heard nothing, saw nothing.

The final image of that glowing green light replayed endlessly in her mind's eye, as the last thing her mortal eyes would ever see…

**

_'Where… am I?'_

_'Am I dead? Is this what death feels like?'_

_'No, it can't be. I'm still thinking. You can't think when you're dead, right?'_

_'Unless this is some kind of really cruel afterlife… no, don't think like that. You're a scientist. You need to think logically.'_

_'Okay, if I can still think, that means my brain is still functioning. If my brain is functioning, that means my body is, too. I can't move it an inch. Not my legs, my arms, my head. I can't even blink.'_

_'But as long as I can think, I can stay awake. I have to stay awake, no matter how tempting it is to sleep. I have a bad feeling if I sleep, I won't wake up again…'_

_'Come on, Jane, this isn't the time to panic. Just keep thinking. Think about anything… Newton's laws of motion. Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it...'_

_'The sun is the closest star to Earth. A star is made up of hydrogen, helium…'_

_'Einstein's theory of relativity combines the theories of special relativity and general relativity to create…'_

_'How long has it been? Days? Weeks? I can't even tell anymore…'_

_'A departure of the local value of the Hubble constant from its globally averaged value…'_

_'I don't know how long I'll have to keep doing this. Maybe forever. Maybe it's pointless to try…'_

_'Energy can never be created or destroyed…'_

_'Maybe I should just give up, go to sleep… I'm so tired…'_

_'The law of independent assortment states that the genes controlling different traits are distributed separately…'_

_'No! No, I can't do that. If I give up now, everything I've done up to this point will have been meaningless. I don't know if I'm the only one who's frozen. It could be everyone on this street, in this city, in the world…'_

_'I can't give up.'_

_'The elements are hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium…'_

_'I'll keep going, I won't let myself fail. No matter how long it takes. Months…"_

_'...boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen…'_

_'...or years…'_

_'...fluorine, neon…'_

_'...or centuries…'_

_'...sodium, magnesium…'_

_'...or millennia…'_

_**_

Light.

Real light.

Not green, but white.

Jane saw it with her eyes. Eyes that hadn't been used in ages squinted at the sudden burst of brightness. It came not with movement, but with sound. Birds were singing, wind was blowing. Jane tried to shut it out with a rumble of thunder, but this wasn't like the beautiful summer day she had spent the last however long dreaming about. The birds didn't stop when she asked them to. The light didn't fade. She had no control.

It was real.

And the footsteps were real. Someone was walking around. Standing over her.

"Come on."

That wasn't her voice, nor any she'd ever heard. Deep, rough, accented. It was clearly male, as was the shadow blocking the sun.

"Come on now, Doctor. You've been asleep for far too long. Time to wake up."

The words were like a spell, forcing her to do something she hadn't tried since the last time she opened her eyes.

Jane sat up. All the way up.

She took a breath and let it out. She screamed.

Her voice worked. Her arms worked.

She was alive.

"Fuck!" she shouted. "FUCK!"

Who knew that could feel so good?

Crawling on her hands and knees, she found herself on a cliffside overlooking a pristine lake. Grassy knolls dotted the landscape. Far in the distance was a mountain range surrounded by a leafy forest that seemed to stretch on for miles. Technicolor flowers grew near moss coated rocks. A single deer trotted up and down the lake. Jane watched it drink its fill and disappear through a thicket of trees.

It looked like one of those postcards sold in touristy gift shops. A perfect slice of nature untouched by man. It was not anything Jane ever expected to see in New York City.

"Where am I?" she asked herself.

"I was rather hoping you could tell me."

Jane gasped and rolled over. Something heavy was draped over her shoulders and it flew off as she landed on her back. The man standing over her was as tall as a skyscraper, his black hair loose over his shoulders and his blue eyes searching. Angular features and high cheekbones made him more than just attractive. The only blemish to be found was an odd black scar running across his left eye.

He wore a strange kind of tunic and pants which seemed to have been made out of animal hide. It even had a cape attached. His uncovered arms were thick with lean, ropey muscle. He looked like someone who could easily take down a large animal and skin it all on his own. That fact alone should've terrified Jane and made her want to run as fast as she could. Still, though she could once more move without trouble, she stayed in place. Their eyes were locked for longer than she knew, a real feat considering how long she'd been reciting theories and laws to herself.

The man's hard gaze softened the tiniest bit, and to Jane's surprise, it was him who looked away first. "I must ask before we do anything, that you please cover yourself. This is already going to be awkward enough for both of us."

Before Jane could ask, another gust of wind blew over her body, chilling her in places it wasn't supposed to.

She looked down.

"Oh my God!" Jane wrapped the deerskin blanket around herself until she resembled a sushi roll. "Where the hell are my clothes?"

"They've long since rotted away I would assume," the man said.

"What are you talking about?" Jane maneuvered her feet out of the blanket and steadied herself on her feet. "Where am I? Who are you and where have you taken me?"

The man frowned like she'd insulted him. "As I said, I am not familiar with the names of locations in this realm. However, you should be not much further than where you were standing when the petrification occurred. You will, of course, have drifted a bit since then, but likely only a short distance before I moved you. As for who I am, that should be obvious. Given my brother will have surely talked your ear off about what a good little obedient right hand I am."

He trailed off, muttering words Jane didn't care to make out. Nothing he said made sense anyway. She had never met this man before in her life. How could she possibly know his…

"Wait." Jane took a step back. "You're not… you couldn't possibly be-"

"Loki?" he filled in with a grin. "The god of Mischief himself? But of course, I can, my dear. And I am."

Jane turned to run, but all she found was a fifty-foot drop with jagged rocks at the bottom. There was nowhere to go except around him. Or maybe through him. If only she had a flint or some other sharp stone she could use as a weapon. It probably wouldn't do much against him, but if she managed to draw blood, it might stun him long enough for her to make a break for it.

"I know what you're thinking," he said, sending a chill through her body. "You're plotting a way to escape from me. You believe I have you in my clutches and your only hope is to kill me before I kill you. I hope over time I can dissuade you of such fears."

She could've laughed and almost did. "Dissuade me? You still haven't answered any of my questions. Where are we and why did you bring me here?"

This should've been his cue to let out an evil laugh and start gloating about his evil plan like a James Bond villain. That was the image Jane had of him after the attack on Puente Antiguo. Perhaps it was unfair of her, naive to assume the hero was always a beacon of morality and the villain a mustache-twirling monster. Thor certainly hadn't been what she expected in the end… but that had nothing to do with any of this, so why even go there?

While Jane was at war with herself, Loki frowned. He stared out at the forest with a look Jane could only describe as uneasy.

"In truth, I have brought you nowhere," he said. "Originally, your body lay at the base of this hill. I carried you up here because I thought you might respond better in a more open space. After 3700 years imprisoned in stone, we could all do with some fresh air."

"Wow, how nice of you," Jane rolled her eyes. "I'm really grateful for… did you say 3700 years?"

Again he didn't laugh. Again he really should've. Why wasn't he laughing? Why did he look so serious?

"I did," he replied. "The two of us have been frozen for nearly four millennia. The rest of the planet may well be frozen for even longer. As it stands, you are the last living Midgardian on this planet. The rest remain trapped, and I doubt they have kept as active in their prison as you did."

Jane didn't know where she found the strength to do it. Her bones were brittle and aching from lack of use. Still, she was able to ball her fist and send it flying into his cheek. The blow did nothing but knock his head back an inch. He didn't even move his feet.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" She demanded, tears in her eyes. "Playing a joke like that on me. Do you really think I'm going to fall for something so stupid?"

"It isn't a joke," Loki snapped, rubbing his cheek. "Or have you not seen what's at your feet?"

She looked down instinctively, and for a split second, she wanted to kick herself for falling for such an obvious trick. Now he was open to run or hit her back, or…

Wait…

Jane sunk to her knees, picking through the pile of broken rocks where her body once lay. They were black and thin, unlike anything she'd ever seen before. One of the larger pieces had grooves around it that vaguely resembled an eye. Another one looked like part of an ear. Everywhere she looked, there were more stone fragments. All of them had settled in the same spot, and when she backed up to look, that spot was unmistakably human-shaped.

"What is this?" Jane breathed. "You're telling me… I came out of that?"

Loki nodded. "You did. As did I. What good fortune that I arrived on this planet just in time to be petrified with the rest of you. I've been biding my time ever since, counting down the seconds until I could revive. Then I spent the last few months traveling. That's how I discovered that I wasn't alone in my condition. Every last human being on Earth has been turned to stone. Civilization as you knew it has long since vanished. Wherever we are now, it's where you were when you were frozen."

"No way," Jane said, looking around at the hills and the lake and the miles and miles of trees. "I was in Manhattan. That's one of the biggest cities in the world, this can't be-"

It was like she was frozen again. None of the commands her brain sent to the rest of her body were heeded. Her hands seized and her throat closed. Every time she blinked, she feared her vision would disappear.

Loki was right there, right behind her. Real and in the flesh and spinning an incredible yarn. His body blocked her only path of escape. If she tried to run, would he stop her? If she managed to get around him, would he chase her? If she got down this hill in one piece and made for the trees, would he follow?

Why even bother asking?

"What you're telling me… it's unbelievable," she said. "Complete and totally, utterly unreal."

He stepped forward, almost like he knew. "Jane-"

She ran. There was no time to wait. Spinning on a heel, she barreled past him, down the rocky slope, and into the dewy grass. Her bare feet slapped against the harsh terrain. The sting of pebbles under her toes barely registered. Any pain could be pushed through. All obstacles overcome as long as he didn't catch her and she found her way to a road or a cabin or something. There were no signs of civilization as far as the eye could see, so she had to be somewhere out of the way. If she kept going in the same direction…

He wasn't following her.

It hit her when she turned her head and he was little more than a dot on the horizon. Though her vision was jumbled, it was clear he hadn't moved. All he did was stand there, watching her go.

Jane yelped as her foot slammed into a rock. The force sent her flying and she landed hard on her belly. It nearly knocked the wind out of her, but she opened her mouth and took in all the air she could. The burning was nothing compared to the thundering of her heart as she waited for Loki to seize his opportunity and pounce on her. Rolling on her side, she listened for his steps, but she heard nothing except the birds. No cars, no people.

Her eyes settled on what she'd hit. She gasped.

It was a stone statue of a young boy with spiky hair. His head was slightly turned like he'd been about to look at something. His mouth was closed and his face impassive. Like any other boy his age who only cared about video games and that one cute girl in class. The statue was buried in the ground to the knees. It looked like it had sunken into the earth over a long period of time.

As Jane tried to reconcile the sight, she noticed something. Another statue right behind him. This one was a woman with curly hair. She appeared to be looking down at the boy. In fact, they were holding hands. Their facial features were so similar, they could've been related.

There were more. Now that Jane had stopped running, there were statues everywhere. Some whole, some in pieces, some embedded into cliff sides, some sprouting out of trees. A sweet-faced woman with her hands on her mouth stared sightlessly ahead, fear permanently etched on her face.

Jane stared at her, lungs back to full capacity and yet unable to take in air. They closed entirely when she spotted another statue up against a tree. Though she lacked her trademark hat and glasses, the resemblance was clear. Her jaw was unhinged, her arms at her sides, and her curly hair a mess around her face. Jane shuffled forward, eyes filling with tears.

"Darcy…" she mumbled. "It can't be…"

It was. Logic and rationale could only take her so far, and this was definitely Darcy Lewis standing before her, or at least, what was left of her.

"How?" Jane muttered, cupping Darcy's cold, stone cheek.

"I've been wondering myself," Loki said. He was right behind her. Jane didn't know when he'd moved, and she no longer cared. "Something strange has happened to this planet. 3700 years have come and gone, and we may very well be the first to wake up. It's extraordinary, isn't it?"

She should've punched him again, or said something snappy so maybe he'd fuck off. That's what Darcy would've done, but she was a hunk of rock now. Just like the one in Jane's stomach.

"It's true, then," she said, knees buckling. "You and I, all of us, we've been frozen for hundreds and thousands of years. This really is Manhattan, isn't it?"

"The Manhattan of the year 5738. Not as much of an attraction as it once was, I imagine."

When Jane didn't react to his quip, he seemed to soften. At the very least, he left Jane alone to process all this new information. After a while, she couldn't look at Darcy's face anymore. She chose a tree to focus on, trying to forget that it had once been a skyscraper. How long would it take for steel buildings to rot away with zero upkeep? A few hundred years she guessed. Maybe more. Maybe there were a few craters where the subways had once been. Maybe the Statue of Liberty was at the bottom of the sea.

"Come now," Loki said, his voice weirdly comforting. "You are in shock and need to eat. I can make you something better to wear out of whatever we kill. Will you come with me now?"

Jane laughed bitterly. "And go where? Everything is gone…"

She hated this. She hated feeling so weak, so helpless. Not even ten minutes ago she was in the dark, alone but comfortable. Blissfully unaware that anyone else had suffered the same fate as her. Now if she closed her eyes, they'd always open again, and the statues would still be there.

Loki knelt beside her. "You know, Asgard has seen its fair share of disasters. You might think the realm eternal lives up to its name but we have lost more than a few forests and cities along the way."

"Ever lose everything all at once?"

"Hmm, can't say we have, but you know what we always do when something is destroyed?" He stood and held out a hand. "We rebuild."

Jane stared at his hand. He was kidding, right? He had to be kidding. "Rebuild what? The world?"

"Well, yes," Loki said with the shadow of a smirk. "Don't you want to know how I freed you?"

That was when it hit her. Jane understood everything. He wasn't mocking her or trying to patronize her with 'stay positive' talk. No, this was a challenge. He was _daring_ her to stand, to come with him, to remake the world as it once was. He was a trickster by trade. If nothing else the old myths had been right about that, but he was more than just that. He was a sorcerer. A master of magic according to Thor.

No, not magic. Not magic at all.

Whatever Loki could do, there was some kind of logical explanation for it. Whatever did this to the world, it was tangible. Something that could be studied. There were rules it needed to be followed. Conditions that must be met. Just like every other phenomenon that had ever arisen in the history of this universe.

This was not magic, it was science, and Jane Foster was a scientist.

And yes, now that she thought about it, she really did want to know how he did it.

With a deep breath that shook the dust from her lungs and the sediment from her blood, Jane reached out and took Loki's hand.

**

Ohayo sekai!

Good morning, World!


End file.
